More professionalism needed

By Jr
January 23 2005

After a 2-1 defeat at home to Wolves, Millwall assistant manager Ray Wilkins was naturally disappointed with the Lions’ failure to secure a point. South Korean star Seol Ki-Hyeon capitalised on Kevin Muscat’s late error against his old club to send the travelling 900 or so Wolves fans into rapture.

After a 2-1 defeat at home to Wolves, Millwall assistant manager Ray Wilkins was naturally disappointed with the Lions’ failure to secure a point.

South Korean World Cup star Seol Ki-Hyeon capitalised on Kevin Muscat’s late error against his old club to send the travelling 900 or so Wolves fans into rapture with a long-range winner.

Up until then, the Lions supporters were in good voice and as Wolves boss Glenn Hoddle commented “were really up for it.“

In fact, the former England coach thought the crowd were getting at referee Lee Probert, who awarded a controversial penalty to Millwall with the score at 1-0 to Wolves.

Player boss Dennis Wise had brought himself on in place of Jody Morris and managed to find Barry Hayles in the box with a precision pass.

Hayles certainly seemed obstructed in some way by Joleon Lescott, but even Wilkins admitted it was a “soft penalty”.

Wise finished with aplomb from the spot, which was quite an achievement given the form of Michael Oakes in the Wolves goal.

The visitors’ keeper had been equal to every other shot that afternoon, turning away efforts from Jody Morris, Alan Dunne and Scott Dobie.

Dunne did manage to beat Oakes on one occasion, after a masterfully worked free kick involving Morris and Matt Lawrence, but the 22-year-old midfielder planted his header against the crossbar.

Wolves struck back almost immediately on the counter-attack with Kenny Miller finding Seyi Olofinjana, who confidently stroked home in a one-on-one situation against Millwall keeper Graham Stack to put the visitors ahead.

Hayles found himself in a similar position, after he used his pace to home on to Lawrence’s through ball but, under pressure from Oakes, Lescott and Mark Clyde, the speedy striker toe poked wide.

As well as setting up that chance, Lawrence was instrumental in keeping the Millwall goal intact when miraculously clearing Seol’s first half attempt off the line.

But Lawrence’s supreme efforts were ultimately to no avail, as Seol struck in injury time to gift all three points to Wolves.

Despite the shock of that hammer blow, Wilkins could take some positives from the game: “It‘s an immensely disappointing result, but we did play with energy in the second half.

“I felt we were in control and had the Lions’ share of the game.”

On Seol’s winning goal, Wilkins said: “The major problem was we backed off and the shot he hit was unopposed and bounced in front of Graham Stack.

“It's not a factor whether you deserve a point; you have to get one.

"It wasn't going for us. But as players, you have to make right decisions at right times and we failed to do that.

“We should have taken a point and not lost all three.”

Wilkins added: “We’ve conceded in the last four or five minutes on numerous occasions.

“We need to play with more professionalism and then I’m sure we’ll be there or thereabouts as far as the play-offs are concerned.”

Millwall’s next opportunity to get their promotion hopes back on track is a London derby at home to Queen’s Park Rangers on Saturday 6th February (kick off 3pm).

This fixture should see former Lion Marc Bircham return to the Den for the first time since his departure to Rangers on the Bosman Ruling in 2002.